


fiction

by thefudge



Category: Black Panther (2018), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, F/M, I'm a bitch, Mindfuck, White Wolf - Freeform, ashes to ashes - Freeform, the wolf and the princess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2019-05-13 00:58:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14739098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thefudge/pseuds/thefudge
Summary: Post-IW. They don't turn into ash. They are spared. But there's always a catch. (can be read as a sequel to "a burden he adores" but not necessarily)





	fiction

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, I said I wouldn't write more fic until I finished my thesis, but I'm too starved. So, here's a short piece that will probably fuck with you. I'm sorry.

_fiction_

_when we’re not together_

_mistaken for a vision_

_something of my own creation_

 - the xx

 

 

In his white dreams, he is the white wolf. No, not symbolically, but in flesh and blood.

He gives chase to the moon on the edge of a glimmering lake.  His haunches tremble with the effort, his fur glistens with evening dew. His fangs protrude like swords which he carries in his mouth. He craves blood, but not through violence. 

He runs, forgets everything.

But the more he runs, the clearer it becomes. The soft weight on his back.

The princess is riding the white wolf. He can feel her small hands around his neck. Her cheek against his pelt.

The moon hides behind the clouds and he loses his whiteness, but she still rides with him, her ragged breath in his ear.

They stop, at length, at the edge of the waterfall.

She dismounts.

The moon returns to bathe her shoulders. She is dressed in funeral black, a startling contrast.

Her feet sink into the water. She calls to the white wolf, lifting her hand with a smile.

The faithful dog comes.

“Help me push him over the edge,” she tells him, bending her head down.

The white wolf treads water with his paws, uncertain of her meaning.

Shuri points to a darkness in the pool. Something heavier stuck between mossy stones.

The white wolf stares at Bucky Barnes, he stares at his submerged body. He stares at himself. Yellow wolf eyes meet glassy orbs. Bucky is clad in his Soldier gear. It weighs him down to the bottom of the pool.

The wolf growls low under his breath. He wants to tear into this body, eat it raw.

Shuri places a soothing hand on his head. She strokes. “It’s all right. This is what he wants. Let’s do it together.”

The wolf grips one leg with his teeth. The princess takes hold of one arm. They both drag Bucky to the edge.

When the old body falls over and disappears into the mist, the wolf issues a howl of relief. It comes from somewhere deep in his throat, some secret chamber where the animal resides.

Shuri bends down and embraces the white wolf, burying her nose in his fur.

“It feels easy now, doesn’t it?”

The wolf licks her cheek and she laughs, small tears in her eyes. He licks those too. She lifts her head and gives him her throat shyly. He laps the evening dew, savors the taste of her living flesh, the taste of blood underneath the skin, the pulse of the hopeful.

Shuri lowers herself on the pebbly bank.

The white wolf licks every inch of her as she shivers in the moonlight. She is afraid, but not of him.

She is afraid of dissolving before he has a chance to know her.

She turns to ash before his yellow eyes.

“Bucky!” she cries out, the scream of a dying comet, and he howls for her, sinks his teeth into her flesh to keep her there, but she’s already gone.

 

 

Ash in his mouth, under the tongue. Ash behind his eyelids, making everything grainy. Ash in his nostrils, like breathing in soot.

He thinks he must be at the heart of some machinery that won't let him go.

Maybe he has been reduced to his metal arm.

He calls out for her.

_Shuri, Shuri, Shuri…._

Only she can save him.

 

 

Bucky wakes up with a start.

He screams her name.

“ _Where_ is she? Where – tell me where–”

“Hey, hey, it’s all right.”

Urgent footsteps follow her scent. He’s come to recognize it.

“Bucky, let him go –” her voice calmly instructs.

He hasn’t even noticed he’s choking a young man in a lab coat. He’s choking him not with his metal arm, but with his good hand. Old habits transferred into old flesh.  The young man keens under his hold, eyes rolling to the back of his head.

He lets the man go and he collapses on the floor.

Bucky feels a wave of nausea. 

Shuri soothes the nightmare. She cradles his face. His vision becomes clearer.

“You’re okay, you’re alive.”

“I don’t care about me…I thought you were…” he mumbles, distracted, relieved, ashamed. “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have done that…”

“You mean strangle my staff?” she quips with a strained smile. There are cavernous dark circles under her eyes. “Understandable given the unusual circumstances.”

He can’t believe she’s right there, a breath away from extinction. He reaches out with his hand and clumsily strokes her cheek to prove to himself that she’s real.

She feels real enough.

Shuri takes his hand in hers and squeezes it in assurance. She doesn’t let go of him.

“I thought we were all goners,” he says, lifting himself from the stretcher.

Shuri swallows a small sob. “Some of us are…my brother…your friends…they turned to ash.”

“Steve?” he asks, already knowing the answer.

She nods dejectedly.

 _But not you_ , he thinks stupidly. _Not you._

It’s selfish and callous to consider himself lucky, but he does. His princess is alive.

“I’m trying to find a way to bring them back,” Shuri rambles on, voice filled with despair. “I collected what ash I could find and I’m attempting a particle-regeneration, at least on a virtual level but –”

Bucky grabs her and pulls her in a tight embrace.

Shuri clutches his shoulders, burying her face into his chest. Her voice is muffled by tears. “I thought you were dead too. When I found your body, I was so happy, and it felt so wrong because everyone else…”

“Me too,” he whispers in her hair. He kisses the side of her head. “Me too.”

The gods have spared them somehow. 

They stand like that for several moments, locked in grief and selfish relief, locked in their miracle. 

When they break away, he wipes the tears on her cheek. They glisten like stars on his thumb.

“I should tell you…with T’Challa temporarily gone, I am the rightful queen.” She insists on the adverb. _Temporarily_. Not forever. Not for long. "It's not something I want, but it is what I must do."

"You'll do it well," he offers with as much heart as he can. "You were born for this." 

Shuri shakes her head. "Regardless, I can't do it alone. I need you by my side." There's steel determination in her eyes. “I don’t care what the people say, if the elders approve or not. We have bigger problems right now and I need a friend. I need someone who is like family to me.”

 _Like family_ , he thinks with a pang. He has to learn how to contain himself to be _just_ her family.

Shuri leans forward, pulling a stray lock from his forehead.

“I’m going to bring everyone back, I promise. But until then, you will help me rule. I’m not taking no for an answer.”

He smiles a broken smile. He could never deny her. He will be her servant, even if she wants to raise him, to make him her equal.

“I’m yours,” he replies dryly, without sentiment, because his belonging to her is factual.

He would prostrate himself in front of his queen, but he knows she wouldn't allow it. 

Shuri’s smile trembles in the moonlight. But where is the moon? Why can’t he see it?

"I'm yours too," she replies warmly, and the blood tingles in his veins. 

She places her fingers under his chin and draws him forward.

“During the day, we’ll work to save the world. And at night, we’ll forget the world and its troubles, we’ll even forget about family…”

Her mouth is dangerously close to his. She speaks against his lips, almost. “We’ll ride together on the edge of the water. You and I. Would you like that, White Wolf?”

Bucky nods blindly, rubbing his nose against hers. His good arm wraps around her waist, pulling her closer.

“We'll forget about family,” he repeats treacherously, happily, and he kisses her, capturing her mouth with his fangs. She tastes so sweet.

Shuri moans against him, stroking his white fur, sinking her nails into the flesh underneath.

Before she turns into ash, she grins at him, a buoyant, girlish grin. The way she used to grin when she pulled a prank on him.

 _I can’t believe you fell for that_ , her voice chants in his ears.

He can believe it. He is a wretched animal who wants her above all else.

And he would be wolf, king, slave, corpse and many more for the taste of her.

He dissolves into ash. 

 

 

 

Thanos picks up the bowl and shakes the ashes lightly, almost playfully.

Interesting. This one still craves the living.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> (I should specify, Shuri is alive. fight me.)


End file.
